


not asking, but telling

by ultrageekery



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan), Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, F/F, Guilt, Nolanverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-06
Updated: 2012-08-06
Packaged: 2017-11-11 13:30:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/479045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ultrageekery/pseuds/ultrageekery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Selina can't move forward.</p>
            </blockquote>





	not asking, but telling

**Author's Note:**

> So...okay, I've never written fic for Batman/DCU/Nolanverse/anything related in my life.
> 
> But I saw TDKR on opening night and I COULD NOT GET THESE TWO OUT OF MY HEAD. I guess Selina's sidekick doesn't go by Holly in the film, but...whatever. That's how most people see her.
> 
> Excuse any inaccuracies. I've never read the comics or anything. I just really liked this damn movie. And now I've probably crapped all over it with this fic.

“Selina.”

She reached out, feeling uncharacteristically blind - she could see just fine, if not better than usual, in such darkness. Emotion was what eluded her. She lacked a label, a name for how she felt towards not only Holly, but herself, after all that had happened.

They had not experienced everything together, and months after Gotham’s resurrection, Holly still insisted that that was fine.

Selina couldn’t help feeling like she had let Holly down; while she was off saving the city, doing her best to keep it from falling to ashes, watching as Bruce went down a hero while she escaped, leaving behind the honor she would not have laid claim to even if she could, Holly had been alone.

Alone.

Hiding.

Waiting for her.

And she had not returned.

Selina was gone for a long time. Too long, in her mind.

Somehow, Selina felt like she had broken an unspoken vow, one that ran far more deeply than whatever loyalty she felt towards Gotham.

Her hand brushed across Holly’s cheek.

“Selina,” Holly tried again. “You did what you needed to do. You helped save Gotham. That’s more important than...whatever this is.”

Selina exhaled shakily, feeling uncomfortably close to tears.

Ignoring the burn in her throat, she finally spoke.

“You don’t understand.”

The statement fell out of her like it was on the verge of shattering - the tone of Selina’s voice was so unlike her that the knot in Holly’s chest grew even tighter. She was worried, somehow even more so now than she had been during the time when Selina was absent.

Holly waited.

“I was supposed to protect you, Holly.”

Holly instinctively wanted to ask Selina if she had lost her mind, but thought better of it. Given the circumstances, it seemed entirely possible.

“Like you’ve done anything less than that!” Holly snapped, her patience finally evaporating into the night. “What, just because you weren’t with me all the time, that means you didn’t do a good job protecting me? You told me before you left that sometimes, the best way to protect people is to leave them behind!”

Both women were crying now.

“Let it go, Selina. It’s over.”

“I can’t. You can’t ask me to do that.”

“I’m not _asking_ you to do anything.”

Holly rolled over, kissing Selina so deeply that for a moment, they both forgot what it was like to live in constant anguish.


End file.
